Mobile phone use has increased rapidly over the past decade. Mobile phones offer not only convenience but also significant safety benefits by providing stranded motorists, pedestrians, and other individuals separated from conventional landline phones with the ability to contact emergency service providers if needed.
However, unlike conventional landline phones, mobile phones do not provide emergency service providers with information indicating where the caller is located. This is often critical for emergency providers as the caller may become incapacitated during the call, disconnected, or otherwise prevented from supplying the emergency service provider with this information. The need for this information is only amplified in the case of mobile phones as the mobile caller may not actually know his or her whereabouts. Consequently, emergency service providers may be unable to assist the mobile caller.
Some solutions to this problem have been attempted utilizing the Global Positioning System (GPS), a network of satellites capable of locating objects on the surface of the earth. However, GPS solutions are undesirable for a number of reasons. A primary drawback is the fact that GPS solutions require an unimpeded line-of-sight between a GPS satellite and the mobile phone. Thus, a GPS-based system will be unable to locate a mobile phone user calling from within a building.
Therefore, a system is desired that is capable of determining the location of a caller communicating with an emergency service provider using a mobile phone.